A 54-year-old Canadian woman recently returned home with a baby birthed for a fee by an Indian surrogate arranged through a controversial doctor who is building the world’s first ‘‘baby factory,’’ according to a new BBC documentary.

The Canadian, identified as ‘‘Barbara,’’ paid a woman in Gujarat, India, identified as Edan, to be a surrogate of her son, according to the documentary, which ran Tuesday on BBC4.

The film, House of Surrogates, tells the story of Dr. Nayna Patel, who is building a clinic to house hundreds of poverty-stricken Indian women making babies for childless Westerners.

The one-stop surrogacy shop — complete with a gift shop and hotel rooms — is under construction as part of India’s multi-billion-dollar commercial surrogacy industry.

Dr. Patel already runs the Akanksha clinic, which currently accommodates around 100 pregnant women in a single house.

The film shows Barbara forced to stay in India for four months with her newborn son, Ceron, before she got the paperwork she needed to take him home. She paid Edan to give birth to her baby, and also gave her cash to visit her hotel twice a day to continue breast feeding her new son before she returned to Canada.

“Infertility is a medical problem,’’ said Barbara, who tried for 30 years to become a mother.

“If people born with bad eyesight get corrective eye glasses, and diabetics get insulin, why can’t we get medical treatment for our problem?”

According to the documentary, hopeful parents send sperm or embryos to the clinic via courier, often only visiting India to pick up their new son or daughter.

“According to many, I am controversial. There have been allegations of baby selling, baby making factory,” said Dr. Patel.

“The surrogates are doing the physical work agreed and they are being compensated for it.”

Currently under construction, her new clinic will have apartments for the visiting Western couples, a floor for the surrogate mothers to live, offices, delivery rooms, an IVF department and even a collection of restaurants and a gift shop.

Dr. Patel’s program has already produced almost 600 babies in a decade. She has received death threats and faced accusations of exploiting the poor for profit, but she insists her work is a “feminist mission” bringing equally needy woman together.

Speaking in Tuesday’s documentary, she said: “These women know there is no gain without pain. I definitely see myself as a feminist. Surrogacy is one woman helping another.”

Among the hopeful couples is British doctor Michael, 62, and his Russian wife Veronica, 33. She was born with one fallopian tube and one ovary, leaving her unable to carry a child. A surrogate has been implanted with two embryos.

“My last chance of trying to have my own child is to use a surrogate,’’ Veronica said.

“The embryos for me are already alive, they are waiting for that moment where they can grow and be taken out and say ‘Hello mommy’… it’s like my whole future starts today, right now.”

‘According to many, I am controversial. There have been allegations of baby selling, baby making factory’

Husband Michael said the clinic looks ordinary from the outside, but it is professional and sterile, and no different from what he was used to in the West.

The documentary shows Dr. Patel praying as she places the embryos inside the uterus of a surrogate. In two weeks a blood test will reveal if she is pregnant.

Surrogate mum-to-be Papiya is expecting twins for an American couple and plans to spend the cash on a house for her family.

“Having twins means we get a bigger fee,” she said. “Last time I was a surrogate I bought white goods, a car and lent some to my sister in law. This time I will buy a house.”

Mother Vasanti and her husband Ashok have been able to send daughter Mansi to an esteemed English-speaking school thanks to the cash she has earned from surrogacy.

They currently all live in one room — shared with four more family members — but are building a new house with surrogacy fees.

Vasanti told the film makers: “Things are getting more expensive we can’t afford them.”

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